Editorials|1 June 1963

The Wellsprings of Medical Science

Abstract

The wellsprings of medical science are many: compassion for the sick, understanding of the possibilities of the scientific method, intellectual curiosity, individual initiative, opportunity to exercise such curiosity and initiative alone or in collaboration with like-minded seekers after truth, a climate of intellectual freedom. Any threat to any of these factors threatens the progress of medical science and hence the health of the nation—a matter of grave concern to the medical community as well as to the public at large. Two such threats to this progress loom in present activities of the Congress. The first of these is the introduction